"Mark Twain" was the pen name of Samuel Langhorne Clemens (1835 - 1910), widely regarded as one of America's great writers, particularly of fiction and satire. Twain's best-known works are Adventures of Huckleberry Finn and The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, but Twain is also known for travel narratives and short fiction. He also worked as a journalist in the early part of his career, and worked for a while as a riverboat pilot on the Mississippi River (whence he took the phrase "mark twain" as his nom de plume".
Twain makes mention of a hypothetical Newfoundland in a letter he wrote to the editor of the Alta California (San Francisco) newpaper, February 11, 1868, in which he offers advice to a newly elected U. S. Senator.
He ought not to spend millions in the purchase of volcanoes and earthquakes and then 'retrench' by cutting off the Senate's stationery supplies.
He ought not to keep mean whiskey at his rooms and tell his constituents it is forty years old.
He ought not to draw a salary for his pet Newfoundland dog, under the name of 'Clerk' of the Senate Committee on So-Forth and So-Forth. . . .